1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a grinding mill for dirty biomass and similar material; for fuel; for mulch; and for small particle generation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Biomass mills are known which include a strong housing; a heavy duty rotor with affixed cutter bars; an anvil that can release on striking an uncrushable piece of metal or the like; and a discharge grate that allows only sized material to pass out of the mill.
Many grinding machines of variable design have been patented which are used in generating hog fuel from sawmill wood waste. Many of these machines use swing hammers, as typified by Strom, U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,836, that can be made to wear on both sides by reversing the machine rotation direction. Other machines wear both ends of the striking device by removing it and replacing the device in a reversed orientation, as shown by Kessler, U.S. Pat. No. 2,585,943. Such machines have significant shortcomings. The Strom device, in reversing rotation, causes a great loss in capacity as feed cannot properly fall into the nip of the rotor in the reversed direction. Removal and reorientation of the striker bar of Kessler requires entry into the mill itself, at great cost and time.
Other known biomass mills, such as that of Konig et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,049,206, have striker elements that protrude abruptly out from the rotor shaft without concern for the air horsepower loss that this lack of streamlining causes, and have a full width impact anvil with two point support, which decreases sensitivity.